Abstract
We commonly treat cutaneous malignancies with metastases including the lymph nodes and distant metastases, and also cutaneous metastases from visceral malignancies. For patients having cutaneous malignancy with distant metastases, systemic therapy, such as anti-cancer chemotherapy, is administered, in principle. However, anti-cancer chemotherapy alone may not be fully effective in this population, and especially in patients with malignant melanoma ; sometimes an excellent clinical outcome can be potentially achieved by combined chemotherapy and topical treatment, including resection of the metastases, in appropriately selected patients. In addition, emergency surgery may be needed for bleeding associated with cerebral metastases or intestinal obstruction due to intestinal metastases. Meanwhile, for patients with cutaneous metastases from visceral malignancies, there has been little debate on the efficacy of topical treatment, including resection. We therefore examined the surgical indications for metastases, mainly in patients with malignant melanoma or cutaneous metastases from visceral malignancies.[Skin Cancer (Japan) 2010 ; 25 : 288-292]
